


The Dark You Call a Home

by Isa1187



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Character Study, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Secrets, nohr royal family, nohr sure is a fucked up place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 08:13:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17936099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isa1187/pseuds/Isa1187
Summary: In which Nohr and its royal family are full of secrets.





	1. Xander

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amuk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/gifts).



> Written for the prompt “there were some things Corrin was better off not knowing”. Happy extremely late Nagamas, amuk!

Xander shifted uncomfortably as he stepped into the training grounds, the fortress his new sister was locked in towering ominously over him. His hands, never steady as he would have liked, trembled as he raised his sword. 

“I must become stronger,” he said to himself, carefully enunciating the beginning of each word. “I must not show weakness. I must not disappoint Father.” He moved through the his warmup with patient precision, shifting with each sentence. The sword in his hand ceased trembling; slowly, under the pretense of moving into an attacking stance, he turned to survey Corrin’s tower. It was as dark as the rest of Nohr, a flickering candle in Corrin’s window the only sign of life.

_ This is your new sibling, Xander,  _ his father had said only weeks before, presenting a tiny, terrified girl to the prince.  _ She will be raised here, protected, and treated well.  _ King Garon loomed over his son, the contrast between the mighty king and the anxious child eclipsing any similarities.  _ And you must never, ever tell her who she is or let her threaten the balance of power in Nohr. Do you understand me? _ Garon rested a hand on Xander’s shoulder and smiled beatifically, a parody of the sincere fatherly concern that Xander scarcely remembered receiving from him in years past.  _ Of course, _ he said, carefully shaping each word to avoid stuttering.  _ I would never disobey you, father. _

The shadow of the tower felt far less menacing than the shadow of his father’s commands. If he was to have a new sister, shouldn’t he teach her all he could about how to survive in Nohr’s court? Not that it was an issue as long as the child was kept in isolation. Not that Xander himself, a mere fifteen-year-old princeling who could never stop second-guessing his own actions, could protect Corrin when the greatest danger was from the people she would think of as family.

Xander’s hands clenched on his sword as he moved into a tricky lunge that he always had trouble executing perfectly. Perhaps he could follow his father’s commands after all. He would make sure that Corrin grew up with the belief that their family would never hurt her. What threat could an isolated, naive child who grew up believing she was loved ever serve?


	2. Camilla

Camilla’s grip tightened on the assassin’s wrist, halting the dagger that had been aimed at the back of her neck. Disabling the girl was the matter of a few kicks and a well-placed fire spell. She stared at the assassin who had been so foolish as to try to kill  _ her _ , of all people. The girl was awfully young and delicate-looking to have been sent to kill Nohr’s oldest princess. Of course, anyone would have said that the fifteen-year-old princess of Nohr was far too beautiful and refined to defend herself so effectively against an assassin, so who was she to talk?

There were no onlookers. The girl had chosen her opportunity well, in a part of Castle Krakenburg remote enough that it was unlikely anyone would stumble upon them. And anyone who heard distant screams in this basement floor of the castle would assume they came from some unlucky soul in the dungeons. 

But there would be plenty of time to analyze the murderous child's decision-making process later.

“I’d heard that old master assassin had a new protege,” Camilla said, leaning in toward the struggling  girl. “I take it that’s you? Your employer either wants you dead or has far too much faith in your abilities, to send you after me.” 

The assassin only sighed, neither sadness nor surprise showing in her eyes. “So kill me,” she said. “I failed my mission. Only death waits for failed assassins.” 

Camilla’s light chuckle echoed through the empty stone hallway. “And waste such a useful resource? I have a much better idea, darling.” She casually unclasped her jeweled earrings, holding them out for the assassin to inspect. “Consider this your first payment in exchange for your services as my retainer. Now, stand up. What’s your name?”

The assassin stood, slowly, still betraying no emotion save a slight wariness. “I am Beruka."

“Well, Beruka, you’ll need some new clothes if you’re to accompany me at court. I’ll show you the way to the castle tailors.” 

Beruka made no move to follow. “I don’t understand. What do you want with an assassin who tried to kill you?”

“You’ll make a fine retainer, dear, as I already told you. Who better than someone with no loyalty to anything but a contract?” Camilla’s sweet smile dropped as she turned around and looked into Beruka’s questioning eyes. “The walls have ears, Beruka, and I will only say this once. The king has more concubines and children than anyone bothers to count, and no one cares when we bury each other in unmarked graves. I have no intention of dying with my siblings.” She slipped an arm around Beruka’s shoulders, leading the way out of the deserted halls over the dungeons. “You may even get to kill some of my other half-siblings.” 

The wariness might never leave Beruka’s eyes, but she nodded in understanding. “I see. I will protect you as long as you employ me.”

“Very good, dear,” Camilla said, smile firmly in place again. “Oh, and one more thing. When you meet my sister Corrin, don’t repeat any of the unpleasant things I’ve told you.”


	3. Leo

 The darkness of night seemed entirely appropriate, Leo thought approvingly as he saddled his horse for another journey to the Northern Fortress. The wind whistled through twisting streets, the shadows cast by the unusually bright moon stretched into the distance, and the weight of Brynhildr was comforting at his side. 

“Niles,” he called, not needing to look to know that his retainer was hesitating outside of the stables, entranced by the moon. “Select a horse. We’ll be taking the shortcut through the Woods of the Forlorn.” 

“As milord pleases.” The response came from right beside Leo, who forced himself not to jump. Despite the year NIles had spent in his service, Leo never managed to hear his retainers footsteps. 

“One of these days I’m going to put a bell on you,” he said, “or perhaps a spell that forces you to step more loudly around me.” It was always his first instinct to snap at people when he wanted to hide his own anxiety, not that it seemed likely to fool Niles. 

“Oh? And hamper the very stealth that makes me so useful to you? I do like the idea of a bell, though. Perhaps one only you can hear.” 

Leo just shook his head and swung easily onto his saddle. Behind him Niles did the same, mounting a horse he had somehow tacked up between stargazing and needling his lord. Both of them were content to let matters rest, though -- Leo had noticed that Niles almost seemed to regard his endless insults and innuendos as some sort of duty, and his barbs against Leo had long since lost much of their heat. 

“The Woods of the Forlorn are hardly a shortcut,” Niles said as they left the cover of Castle Krakenburg’s grounds.  “And I’m sure many people will question why you’re leaving the castle with your disreputable retainer so late at night.” 

“They can gossip as much as they like,” Leo said, with all the confidence of a fifteen-year-old prince newly recognized as an official royal. “Only King Garon’s opinion matters, and he only cares that I appear to follow his orders.” 

“Mmmm. The nobility don’t agree, judging by the assassins you still attract. The last one was particularly creative with the slow poison he tried to administer.”

“How fortunate that I have a thief watching my back,” Leo said cooly, laying the matter to rest as they approached the forest. 

The Woods of the Forlorn looked nothing like a healthy grove. The trees were spiky and skeletal, with peeling bark and unnaturally pale leaves. Even the paths through the woods were treacherous, often crossing marshy ground that bogged down shoes and layers of dust-fine sand that smothered and suffocated, not to mention the Faceless that plagued the forest and killed unwary travelers. Leo allowed himself a small smile as he unclasped Brynhildr. 

“Track down a few Faceless,” he whispered back to Niles as they both dismounted. Horses would be only a hindrance, here. 

“As you wish, milord.” Niles stepped silently forward after only a moment spent examining the ground. Faceless had never learned to disguise their paths. Leo followed a few steps behind, Brynhildr at the ready. Ten minutes of walking led them to a small clearing where five Faceless stood at rest, waiting for something to catch their attention and throw them into a murderous rage. 

“Very good,” Leo whispered. “Stay here unless I call for help.” Niles sneered in protest but didn’t follow as Leo stepped into the clearing. 

The Faceless snapped into motion and lumbered toward Leo, far too slow as he commanded vines to leap from the ground and wind around the Faceless’ feet, anchoring them in place. They could undoubtedly pull loose eventually, but that would be too late. Leo breathed deeply and took a moment to prepare a second spell, one that couldn’t be found in any of his own tomes, or perhaps in any tome not possessed by Garon’s advisors. The incantation slipped slowly off his tongue; haste had killed many a dark mage. 

Carefully, Leo stopped back to the edge of the clearing, gesturing for Niles to keep his bow at the ready. A final gesture turned the vines conjured by Brynhildr back into nothing. 

One by one, the Faceless turned to face Leo. They did not attack. 

His grin was luminous. Niles stared openly at his prince’s glee, so rare in the darkness of Nohr. 

“It looks like you five serve me now,” Leo said, although they both knew that addressing Faceless with words was pointless. “You will stay here, and kill anyone who find this clearing, and await my orders.”  

The sun was rising by the time they backtracked to the horses and left the forest. “You’ll be late for Corrin,” Niles remarked.” 

Leo shrugged. “I’ll tell her we stopped to help a merchant who was lost in the woods. The less Corrin knows, the better.”


	4. Elise

 The war with Hoshido was taking a toll on the entire Nohrian royal family. As a healer, a princess, a loving sister, and the resident proverbial ray of sunshine, Elise felt it was her duty to keep morale up. Particularly for Corrin, who had been thrown directly from a life of isolation into traumatic betrayal after traumatic revelation. Which explained the picnic that Elise had insisted on, just the two of them, during a quiet moment in the astral plane. 

“A picnic? Elise, you know I don’t have time for that right now. There’s a strategy meeting this afternoon, I’m sparring with Xander after that, and I have a pile of books to study. How can I make peace between Hoshido and Nohr if I don’t understand the history and politics of either?” 

“But you need to eat, big sister! And you can tell me allllll about history during our picnic. And we’ll get to spend time together! I don’t see you enough.” 

Guilt flickered on Corrin’s face. She still hadn’t learned to hide her emotions. “I suppose I don’t spend enough time with you, Elise. Okay, I’ll find the time for a picnic this evening. Should I bring the food?”

“Don’t worry about anything, big sis! All you have to do is show up and get ready to relax.” 

So Elise had gone and asked Mozu for fresh fruit and Shura for wine and convinced Peri to cook a main course of savory pies. She arranged everything in a basket decorated with delicate pink ribbons and took her very favorite blanket, one Camilla had bought for her years before, out into a shady grove a trees. Corrin was late, which was disappointing but not surprising -- she was coming here directly from sparring with Xander, who was an exacting teacher. 

“Big sister!” Elise jumped up off the picnic blanket when Corrin finally arrived, running over in excitement and holding out a flower garland she had made while waiting. “You came! I found really good food for our picnic. And you can tell me all about the books you’ve been reading, and I’ll tell you about my day!” 

Sheltered, fifteen-year-old princess or not, Elise had all the training of a healer. It was too easy to see how exhausted Corrin was. Her shoulders were knotted, eyes tired and hands blistering from long hours spent studying politics and combat. 

Despite protests that she was too busy to stay long, Corrin went on about her studies and all the stress she’d been under and how happy she was to be surrounded by her family. She devoured most of the picnic -- clearly she had been skipping meals, Elise noted. And after an hour of food and flower garlands and conversation, Corrin’s eyes were a little brighter and her shoulders were a little less tense. 

“I’m sorry that I don’t spend more time with you, Elise,” she said as she got up to leave, too soon for Elise’s liking but far after Corrin had initially planned. “You know that I love you, right, little sister?”

Elise’s smile was as bright as ever in response. “And I love you! It’s okay. You’re busy! But we both need to relax too. Let’s have another picnic next week!” 

Corrin hesitated. “Well, if it’ll make you happy… I guess I can find the time,” she said finally. 

Elise nodded. “Good. I’ll be waiting, in the same time and place!” She smiled to herself as Corrin left. Her sister thought that Elise just wanted to spend time with her, and she did! But any healer knew how important it was to eat well and spend a few hours feeling safe and relaxed. It was fine that Corrin didn’t realize that, though. Elise would take care of her anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this without the authors notes! Oops. Rambling about characterization, timeline headcanons, and the general fuckedupness of Nohr below.
> 
> This fic was more challenging to write than I expected it to be. It turns out I only have a solid understanding of like two of the Nohr kids. Elise in particular was a struggle to write, so hopefully her chapter is in-character. 
> 
> The entire timeline here is complete guesswork. I wanted to write a snapshot of Nohr and the things Corrin doesn't know from the point of view of each sibling at the same age, so that involved a lot of reading meta on the Nohr timeline and eventually shrugging and making up my own version. 
> 
> For anyone interested, the siblings are each fifteen in their chapter. I guessed that Xander is eleven years older than Corrin, so Corrin would be 4 when she was kidnapped. Old enough that she should have had very faint memories of Hoshido, but young enough that she basically grew up around the Nohr kids. 
> 
> I picture Camilla as about seven years younger than Xander, which seems like it's on the young side compared to other fandom depictions. The reasoning is that Xander is the only child of the Queen of Nohr, and that Garon was likely particularly hostile to his illegitimate children in the years after her death. Camilla probably survived several attempts on her life and was strong and vicious enough that Garon eventually recognized her as part of the royal family. 
> 
> That makes Leo about three to four years younger than Camilla, approximately the same age as Corrin. His chapter is the least canon part of this fic, but Leo has a ton of poorly-explained magical abilities and also has a thing for lurking in ominous forests and swamps. Anyway, I'm sure he'd planned a few dozen ways to kill Garon's advisors, and turning the Faceless into his own little army is exactly the sort of technically-effective but unnecessarily dramatic thing he'd try. 
> 
> Elise's age is even fuzzier than the rest of the Nohr kids, but here she's fifteen when Corrin's nineteen. She's definitely the Fates royal that I have the worst understanding of, character-wise. As a healer growing up in Nohr of all places I like to think that she's much more astute than she usually appears. Being underestimated is its own form of protection. 
> 
> So everything we know about Nohr is pretty fucked up, huh. Everyone lives underground, the concubine wars happened, the king is evil and possessed, there's a forest full of monsters created by dark mages... yeah. I love Fates, but I'm always disappointed that there is so much backstory here that barely got hinted at in the game. 
> 
> Find me at thecaryatid on tumblr if you ever want to yell about Nohr.


End file.
